Zecho and I had trouble logging in this morning
(10/20/01) but with Petruchios help we were able to
get somewhat back to normal. Petruchio speculated that
the problem was similar to one he had previously
experienced (see Help!!!).

The solution is to login with &displaytype=raw
and disable the CPAN and EDC nodelets from user settings.
The problem is that you have to login in order to change
user settings, but having the suspect nodelets activated
prevents you from logging in. On Petruchios advice we
logged in using a URL of the fashion:

Then the problem was trying to get to user settings
without having nodelets turned on. Fortunately I had a
bookmark for user settings. Even if you do succeed in
logging in, getting to user settings and turning the
suspect nodelets off, the settings have a magical way of
turning themselves back on. Deleting your PM cookie is
recommended at the onset of problems. You can always reset
it once you think you have the problem licked.

My suggestion in the CB was that if there were a checkbox
beneath the login/password box that allowed you to login
directly to your user settings with &displaytype=raw
in effect, it might serve as a temporary workaround for
affected users. tilly suggested that I write this nodelet
but Petruchio believes that the checkbox option is
probably not feasible (I have no reason to doubt him).
However, I have created a browser bookmark for the URL
above and one for user settings, so I should be prepared
if this happens to me again. I've wasted a full day on
this problem and hopefully, this post might spare a few
other users the same aggravation. I guess this is pennance
for my last PMD fiasco.

"If you are going through hell, keep going." -- Sir Winston Churchill

Update: For clarification, Petruchio meant that he didn't
think that it was feasible for pmdev, not that it wasn't possible.

Update It also appears that Damian1301 contributed the login
URL above (originally attributed to Petruchio). The URL contributed
by Petruchio was:

http://www.perlmonks.org/index.pl?node_id=1702&displaytype=raw

Sorry, as I wrote this node I had to rely solely on the recollections of
an almost 43-year old, caffiene/sleep deprived brain.

This works like a charm, without any side effects (at least none that I've seen so far). It's just a suggestion but, knowing my experience-level, there may be security or other related issues that I'm not aware of.

Update if you want to see this in action, go here and just click it on and off, no need for a username etc. Once you click submit, it will adjust the nodelets accordingly.

my answer to the question of whether or not it's feasible is to add an option to the direct login page, whether it be a checkbox or what have ya, that allows for a failsafe login. A second submit button like :